Are we growing in spiritual intelligence?
Spiritual intelligence means that we have allowed our minds to be formed and informed by God’s Mind. This happens through His Holy Spirit.
My favorite Paul quote: “The person who thinks they know, does not yet know as they ought to know.” God’s thoughts, feelings and knowings are higher than ours. We are wise to seek His.
He affirms our intelligence, but spiritual intelligence is another matter. The things of the Spirit are known by the Spirit. Spiritual knowledge is revealed by His Spirit. This holds for our thoughts, feelings and imagination. All of them must die to be reborn. Each area of self must come to the altar and be altered!
We come to discern the difference between His thoughts and feelings and our own. As we do, we grow in spiritual intelligence.
You can tell when people have spiritual intelligence versus just smart people. It’s a different type or level of knowledge. Your very best thought is still so much lower than God’s.
When we start to get more of God’s thoughts, feelings and imagination into ours, things alter. I once had a priest tell me, you will begin to feel less of your own pain and more of His. We must do this in each area of who we are—our minds, feelings and imagination. Less of me, more of thee.
The smartest people in history were often spiritually unintelligent. Jesus taught, that many knew the letter, but not the spirit. They knew the law, but not the giver of the Law and His Ways.
Revealed knowledge takes time and prayer. The holy spirit must place it in your spirit. Revealed knowledge is another level of knowing, and leads to greater love of God and others.
Have we yielded our best thoughts, feelings and creativity to God, so that He can transform them into His new creature. To alter us on His Altar in every area!
The truly lasting thoughts of man were revealed by God. The greatest spiritual thinkers downloaded some of the thought seeds of God, they were given some of His keys. A tree is known by its fruit. You think of MLK and the seeds from God he carried, and how they still bear fruit. He had spiritual intelligence.
Perhaps it is most hard for the very smart to lay down their best thoughts and allow His thoughts to inform and transform their own. But this is also true in our emotional and creative lives. Jesus desires to transform the entire person, and that requires us to surrender our thoughts, feeling and imaginations to Jesus.
I had an uncle who was uneducated in the world, but was educated by The Spirit. He was one of the most spiritually intelligent men I ever met. God often uses the simple to confound the wise. Whether we are highly educated in the world, or fishermen like many of the disciples were, we must lay down our thoughts to be formed by His. Perhaps this is why Jesus taught that it was hard for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God. Those who are rich in their own thought life, may be very poor in His!
This does not negate learning and study, as Jesus did both as He grew in wisdom and stature; but it is the nature of our learning. Are we learning, feeling and creating in His Spirit. If so, we will grow in spiritual intelligence. For we are promised that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth! We are not anti-intellectual, but rather like St Paul, who was highly educated first in the world, and then in the Spirit, we have put our best thoughts on the altar, so that we can become wise. Our intellects are in a process of sanctification, as are our feelings and creativity. The whole is becoming formed and transformed by the Nature of Christ.
For many this is a matter of laying down and confessing our intellectual pride, in order to find His Intelligence. We must do this in every area of life. One well downloaded thought of God, can change the world, and will certainly transform us as well!
